*****Should be as spoiler free, I will try not to list any specific info (what items, what points of interest etc)******

I ADORED The Forest, like it basically it ruined every other game for me. It was a Indie that felt like a full production AAA game. It had interesting mechanics, both gameplay and building mechanics. It always kept you on your toes.

Sons of the Forest, though still fun and at times terrifying falls very short from not only a complete game but way short of the first forest.

I don't want to hear, small team, early access blah blah blah, it doesn't matter. I paid a full 45$ for the product, it was delayed twice.

I played EA because I assumed that they were pretty much done but maybe missing certain minor events or even some voice acting. It was missing ALOT, many mechanics found in the first game and even was a buggy mess. I'll list out some of the missing mechanics now or toned down mechanics:

- Sanity (You would go crazy slowly, you were discouraged from using skin armour only if you absolutely needed to...its just gone)
- Body State (in the previous one, bad food yielded bad energy, it doesn't feel like that it has any impact no obesity etc)
- Certain Food mechanics that were nice in the previous (Turtle shells for water, etc). Just felt better and less overpowered (here food spawns back, and is everywhere, I mean everywhere.)
- Base building is a waste of time, it doesn't actually progress the story or help you survive. (though the base building feels and looks is better than Forest 1)

So really, I had high high hopes for this, waited a crazy amount of time for it. I will say I regret playing the EA because I don't see myself going back to play it again. Maybe to do waves of base building but then its just like any other generic survival game.

=======PROS========

- GAMEPLAY- I'll probably list this in both pro and con, but the game play still feels fun, its fun with friends and over all still has that nostalgic forest feel that I liked.

- SETTING - the setting was great, the island looks amazing and is immersive. The addition the of seasons was a delightful surprise. Good suspense here and there and it just felt creepy a lot.

- AI - the AI is top notch, though it has its faults, its by far one of the more immersive AI I've ever seen. This is an actual upgrade from The Forest.

- ITEMS- It feels good to see new items, and even guns which was heavily missing component of the first one. The diversity was good, and finding the items was rewarding.

- GRAPHICS - This was definitely a notch above, beating out even AAA games in this field. Nothing really bad to say about the art direction and attention to detail (though it does need a beefy system:))

- SCALE - The scale of the game is much grander than the first, so it has to be said. The Snow sections that were once empty dead places, are ready to be explored.

- CAVES and POINTS OF INTEREST - It has diverse sections, and feels eerie to explore them. I was looking forward to the caves/poi more than anything else while playing

- BUILDING MECHANICS - Top of it's field, nothing more to say. Its a pleasure to build stuff.

- PACING - This is another that will be in the CON section as well but pacing was perfect at times. See cons for other.

======= CONS ========

- STORY - None, really none, No Voice Actors, just hints. It was a huge disappointment. NONE! Meaningless objectives a lot of times.

- GAMEPLAY - It's in my opinion a step down from the first, the survival mechanics of the first were just better. It made you go out of your way to survive while this one you can brute force through and eventually still be ok. I never felt threatened or in danger (very rarely). Inventory is bad, it was bad in the first but had way less items, so here you need to use the quick inventory to make it much better. A of of repeating corridors, which can pass in a cave system but is more evident in other sections (will leave this spoiler free). The game is it's own enemy as well, telling you where to go from place to place. So you could straight shoot through.

- CONSUMABLES - Consumable items are everywhere, it makes hunting or any type of survival just pointless, and since everything respawns you have nothing to worry about. Water is readily available as well which is a step down from the first.

- SCALE - Though the scale is impressive, there's a lot of dead zones. Just zones that either had loot not worth the trip or just empty and confusing (like entering somewhere and thinking...this can't be it)

- BUILDING - Beautiful, but pointless. It has no impact on you, it doesn't give you any advantages other than immersion. If anything it was holding us back because it's just a burden. You can just build a quick save/sleep spot anywhere with almost no stress or items.

- SURVIVAL - What survival? Food is everywhere, water is too. Cooking just leaves you exposed and just doesn't benefit you since you can find food everywhere. The survival aspects are optional in a horror survival game.

- HORROR - Missing, it doesn't have the same impact as the first one (this might not be a fair comment, since the first one we weren't so sure what is happening or the scale of the events), but I just never felt the tension, it was missing the monsters scale of the first (sizes, etc) is absent.

- ENEMIES - Though enemies had more variety than the first one, there was a serious lack of Monster variety and was just simply missing some of the cool and shock factors of the first one.

- KELVIN - Don't, just don't. He is a cool idea that was executed poorly. He is buggy, and usually ignored. Though absolutely jokes and funny to be around, we did admittedly laugh and enjoyed his antics.

- PLAGUES WITH BUGS/GLITCHES - This section can be the size of the review itself, but my god it was plagued with problems. From building glitches, to spawning glitches to item glitches, to combat glitches, to attachment glitches, duplication glitches and even game breaking glitches. At one point I lost an item, it just left my inventory and never came back. Sometimes you can't complete actions (even saving) which makes you restart and hope you didn't save too far behind. Crashes, though not quite as frequent (COD crashed more haha), lag spikes/stutters galore. Menu overlapping, sometimes you try to building something and your character just pauses either for a while or never unpauses. The list can keep going, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible, just know others experienced worse than us and others less than us.

Conclusion

So in the end I'd say this is a competent game, and although this will sound like I'm contradicting myself, it is an overall more complete/step up from The Forest. It's what I expected of The Forest back 5 years ago (full) and what 10 years ago total to be.

That being said it was a let down especially with the delays and the announcement that it was going EA. It should have been delayed again.

WAIT FOR THE FULL RELEASE. I paid a fraction of the cost with The Forest and it felt more wroth it. Its just not ready, the Story is just no where to be seen. If you haven't play the first Forest game, not only cheaper but it's a complete story and will get you started (Frankly even if this was a better game I'd say to play the first).

If I think of anything else to say good or bad, I still think this game should have been delayed and we should have swallowed the sadness.

SCORE: 5/10. I think it's a competent game that is it's own enemy.

You can complete the game, which in my opinion the story should have ended with a To be continued or still in development. We could have stopped playing and came back to it down the road. I don't think we will given the current state.

*****Should be as spoiler free, I will try not to list any specific info (what items, what points of interest etc)****** I ADORED The Forest, like it basically it ruined every other game for me. It was a Indie that felt like a full production AAA game. It had interesting mechanics, both gameplay and building mechanics. It always kept you on your toes. Sons of the Forest, though still fun and at times terrifying falls very short from not only a complete game but way short of the first forest. I don't want to hear, small team, early access blah blah blah, it doesn't matter. I paid a full 45$ for the product, it was delayed twice. I played EA because I assumed that they were pretty much done but maybe missing certain minor events or even some voice acting. It was missing ALOT, many mechanics found in the first game and even was a buggy mess. I'll list out some of the missing mechanics now or toned down mechanics: - Sanity (You would go crazy slowly, you were discouraged from using skin armour only if you absolutely needed to...its just gone) - Body State (in the previous one, bad food yielded bad energy, it doesn't feel like that it has any impact no obesity etc) - Certain Food mechanics that were nice in the previous (Turtle shells for water, etc). Just felt better and less overpowered (here food spawns back, and is everywhere, I mean everywhere.) - Base building is a waste of time, it doesn't actually progress the story or help you survive. (though the base building feels and looks is better than Forest 1) So really, I had high high hopes for this, waited a crazy amount of time for it. I will say I regret playing the EA because I don't see myself going back to play it again. Maybe to do waves of base building but then its just like any other generic survival game. =======PROS======== - GAMEPLAY- I'll probably list this in both pro and con, but the game play still feels fun, its fun with friends and over all still has that nostalgic forest feel that I liked. - SETTING - the setting was great, the island looks amazing and is immersive. The addition the of seasons was a delightful surprise. Good suspense here and there and it just felt creepy a lot. - AI - the AI is top notch, though it has its faults, its by far one of the more immersive AI I've ever seen. This is an actual upgrade from The Forest. - ITEMS- It feels good to see new items, and even guns which was heavily missing component of the first one. The diversity was good, and finding the items was rewarding. - GRAPHICS - This was definitely a notch above, beating out even AAA games in this field. Nothing really bad to say about the art direction and attention to detail (though it does need a beefy system:)) - SCALE - The scale of the game is much grander than the first, so it has to be said. The Snow sections that were once empty dead places, are ready to be explored. - CAVES and POINTS OF INTEREST - It has diverse sections, and feels eerie to explore them. I was looking forward to the caves/poi more than anything else while playing - BUILDING MECHANICS - Top of it's field, nothing more to say. Its a pleasure to build stuff. - PACING - This is another that will be in the CON section as well but pacing was perfect at times. See cons for other. ======= CONS ======== - STORY - None, really none, No Voice Actors, just hints. It was a huge disappointment. NONE! Meaningless objectives a lot of times. - GAMEPLAY - It's in my opinion a step down from the first, the survival mechanics of the first were just better. It made you go out of your way to survive while this one you can brute force through and eventually still be ok. I never felt threatened or in danger (very rarely). Inventory is bad, it was bad in the first but had way less items, so here you need to use the quick inventory to make it much better. A of of repeating corridors, which can pass in a cave system but is more evident in other sections (will leave this spoiler free). The game is it's own enemy as well, telling you where to go from place to place. So you could straight shoot through. - CONSUMABLES - Consumable items are everywhere, it makes hunting or any type of survival just pointless, and since everything respawns you have nothing to worry about. Water is readily available as well which is a step down from the first. - SCALE - Though the scale is impressive, there's a lot of dead zones. Just zones that either had loot not worth the trip or just empty and confusing (like entering somewhere and thinking...this can't be it) - BUILDING - Beautiful, but pointless. It has no impact on you, it doesn't give you any advantages other than immersion. If anything it was holding us back because it's just a burden. You can just build a quick save/sleep spot anywhere with almost no stress or items. - SURVIVAL - What survival? Food is everywhere, water is too. Cooking just leaves you exposed and just doesn't benefit you since you can find food everywhere. The survival aspects are optional in a horror survival game. - HORROR - Missing, it doesn't have the same impact as the first one (this might not be a fair comment, since the first one we weren't so sure what is happening or the scale of the events), but I just never felt the tension, it was missing the monsters scale of the first (sizes, etc) is absent. - ENEMIES - Though enemies had more variety than the first one, there was a serious lack of Monster variety and was just simply missing some of the cool and shock factors of the first one. - KELVIN - Don't, just don't. He is a cool idea that was executed poorly. He is buggy, and usually ignored. Though absolutely jokes and funny to be around, we did admittedly laugh and enjoyed his antics. - PLAGUES WITH BUGS/GLITCHES - This section can be the size of the review itself, but my god it was plagued with problems. From building glitches, to spawning glitches to item glitches, to combat glitches, to attachment glitches, duplication glitches and even game breaking glitches. At one point I lost an item, it just left my inventory and never came back. Sometimes you can't complete actions (even saving) which makes you restart and hope you didn't save too far behind. Crashes, though not quite as frequent (COD crashed more haha), lag spikes/stutters galore. Menu overlapping, sometimes you try to building something and your character just pauses either for a while or never unpauses. The list can keep going, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible, just know others experienced worse than us and others less than us. Conclusion So in the end I'd say this is a competent game, and although this will sound like I'm contradicting myself, it is an overall more complete/step up from The Forest. It's what I expected of The Forest back 5 years ago (full) and what 10 years ago total to be. That being said it was a let down especially with the delays and the announcement that it was going EA. It should have been delayed again. WAIT FOR THE FULL RELEASE. I paid a fraction of the cost with The Forest and it felt more wroth it. Its just not ready, the Story is just no where to be seen. If you haven't play the first Forest game, not only cheaper but it's a complete story and will get you started (Frankly even if this was a better game I'd say to play the first). If I think of anything else to say good or bad, I still think this game should have been delayed and we should have swallowed the sadness. SCORE: 5/10. I think it's a competent game that is it's own enemy. You can complete the game, which in my opinion the story should have ended with a To be continued or still in development. We could have stopped playing and came back to it down the road. I don't think we will given the current state.